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Dongguan (China), March 18 (IANS)
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday announced that there will be a re-draw of Group 2 of the Sudirman Cup due to a discrepancy in team rankings which now sees Russia move up into Group 1 while United States moves down to Group 2. "This follows confirmation that points from a player ineligible for representation were included in US team rankings. The player is under US jurisdiction but cannot represent that country as per the requirements of International Representation," said a BWF statement.
"On recalculation of their team points, US are now ranked 16th, therefore in Group 2 and not in Group 1. Russia becomes the 12th team and part of Group 1."
It was, therefore, decided that Russia will be promoted to take US's place in Group 1B with Japan and Chinese Taipei. Otherwise, there is no change to the draw for Group 1.
Group 2 will be redrawn as there are changes in the seeding order, Russia having previously being ranked 13th while US, who replace them in Group 2, are ranked 16th. Meanwhile, there is no change to Groups 3 and 4.
The re-draw for Group 2 will take place on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur.
India had been handed a tough pool on Monday along with three-time champions South Korea and Malaysia in Group 1D.
The Sudirman Cup, which is the World Mixed Team Badminton Championship held biennially, will this year take place here from May 10 to 17. There are five matches in every round: men and women's singles, men and women's doubles and mixed doubles.
The top 12 teams in Group 1 have been split into four sub-groups. The tournament features 35 teams divided into four groups. Of these, the top 12 ranked teams in Group 1 will vie for the trophy while the other teams in Group 2, Group 3, Group 4 will fight for ranking spots.
Teams in Group 1 will play two stages -- group play-off followed by knockouts. The top two teams from each sub-group will qualify for the knockouts while the losing semi-finalist will be jointly ranked third.
China have been the most dominant nation in Sudirman Cup, having won nine titles in 13 editions. Indonesia (once) and South Korea (thrice) are the only other nations to have lifted the trophy.
